The present invention relates to raised floor systems and more particularly to a cable support assembly for use in connection with a raised floor system.
Cable trays in general have been used in power stations and large industrial plants for a number of years to support and route various cables through the plants rather than placing these cables inside a conduit. These cable trays are normally supported from a wall or a ceiling at levels which are above a person""s head in order to avoid obstructing normal floor space. An alternative to the elevated cable tray has been elevated distribution ducts which are also normally mounted from a wall or a ceiling at elevations so as not to interfere with a person standing on the floor and thus, again, conserve floor space.
In many multi-floor buildings, a current practice is to utilize poured concrete floors. Electrical conductor distribution ducts are normally provided within the poured concrete of these floors in order to provide electrical power distribution to various locations within the building. These electrical power distribution ducts are permanently located within the poured concrete making it impossible to accommodate the rearrangement of equipment as both the use of the floor space changes as well as to accommodate the changes in the equipment due to changes in technology. This has lead to the development of raised floors for certain uses of floor space.
Computer rooms, data processing rooms and electronic equipment rooms, in general, are examples of room uses wherein the overhead wiring distribution approach and/or the power distribution ducts have been partially or totally replaced by the distribution of wires and cables on top of the concrete subfloor and below a removable panel raised floor on which the electrical equipment is placed. These raised floors are normally supported on column assemblies and the area below the raised floor is designed to be utilized as access for the distribution of the various electrical cables.
With the increased complexity of electronic equipment and the increasing number of pieces of equipment being placed in a single room due to the equipment continuously becoming smaller, the interconnection of these pieces of electronic equipment by communication cables and power cables has become more complex. The space between the subfloor and the raised panel floor is somewhat restricted and there may be times when there is moisture on the concrete subfloor such as due to condensation. Cables lying on the concrete subfloor have to remain unaffected by the moisture on the subfloor and these cables also need to avoid the problems associated with entanglement. Cables simply lying on a concrete subfloor can become so entangled that it is difficult to remove one particular cable from the mass of cables on the subfloor should the individual cable need to be changed or rerouted for any reason.
Prior art cable trays have been developed to eliminate some of the problems associated with the routing of cables beneath the raised panel floor. Most prior art cable trays are simply placed on the concrete subfloor. Other cable tray designs are suspended from the structure which supports the removable panels of the raised panel floor. These prior art designs are normally suspended between the raised panel floor and the concrete subfloor and provide an organized route for the various cables to travel in order to interconnect the numerous pieces of electronic equipment placed on the raised panel floor.
While the introduction of these prior art cable trays has significantly reduced the entanglement and moisture problems associated with the concrete subfloors, they are not without their problems. As the number of pieces of electronic equipment being placed in a single room increases so does the number of electrical cables. Consequently the number of electrical cables which are being placed within the prior art cable trays is also increasing. This increasing number of cables in the prior art cable trays can now lead to an entanglement problem within the tray. In addition, when it is desired to have specific cables kept separate from each other, the prior art cable trays are used to route one, or one set of cables, while the second or other set of cables, which need to be kept separate, are routed across the concrete subfloor encountering the problems explained above.
Accordingly, there is a need for a raised floor and cable management system which can accommodate the larger number of cables being routed beneath the raised panel floor as well as providing for the separate routing of specific cables without relying on the subfloor beneath the raised panel floor for routing of cables. Further, there is a continuing need for improved raised floor and cable management systems which require fewer number of components. A need also exists for raised floor and cable management systems which are easier to install than existing systems and which provide increased storage capacity and accessibility.
The present invention provides a raised floor and cable management system that has lower material and labor costs to install a complete raised floor and cable management system. The present system also encompasses upgrading an existing raised floor system with the presently disclosed cable support assembly.
In one aspect of the present invention, a raised floor system is provided which includes a plurality of upright support columns, a plurality of floor panels, and a cable tray support assembly. The support columns are disposed on a subfloor in a predetermined grid array and are spaced apart from each other a first predetermined distance. Each support column has a shaped body portion. The plurality of floor panels are supported by the support columns.
The cable tray support assembly includes a plurality of first support pedestals and a platform section. Each first support pedestal has an elongated stringer member, a first upright sleeve member, and a second upright sleeve member. Each stringer member preferably has a horizontally disposed surface that defines an open channel extending therein. Each first and second sleeve member defines a bore extending from a top end through a bottom end. The first sleeve member is attached to a proximal end of the stringer member and the second sleeve member is attached to a distal end of the stringer member. By attaching the stringer member proximate the respective top ends of the first and second sleeve members, the elongated stringer member is supported above the respective bottom ends of the first and second sleeve members.
The first and second sleeve members of the first support pedestal may be spaced apart less than or equal to the first predetermined distance. At least one of the first and second sleeve members of each first support pedestal is removably connected, in overlying registration, to the body portion of one support column of a pair of support columns. If the first and second sleeve members of the first support pedestal are spaced apart the first predetermined distance, then the first and second sleeve members of each first support pedestal are removably connected, in overlying registration, to the body portion of two support column of the pair of support columns.
In a second embodiment of the present invention, the cable tray support assembly may also include a second support pedestal having an elongated stringer member, an upright sleeve member, and a hanger member. The elongated stringer member has a horizontally disposed surface that defines an open channel extending therein. The sleeve member is connected to a proximal end of the stringer member and defines a bore that extends from a top end to a bottom end. The hanger member is connected to a distal end of the stringer member and has a terminal hook portion that is oriented downwardly away from the horizontally disposed surface of the stringer member and generally parallel to the distal end of the stringer member. The hanger member of one second support pedestal may be removably connected to a sleeve member of an adjacent first or second support pedestal. The sleeve member of the second support pedestal may be removably connected, in overlying registration, to the body portion of an adjacent support column.
In a third embodiment of the present invention, the cable tray support assembly may include a third support pedestal having an elongated stringer member, a first hanger member, and a second hanger member. The elongated stringer member has a horizontally disposed surface that defines a channel extending therein. The first and second hanger members are connected to the respective proximal and distal ends of the elongated stringer member and each have a terminal hook portion that is oriented downwardly away from the horizontally disposed surface of the stringer member. The terminal hook portions are generally parallel to the respective proximal and distal ends of the stringer member. The first and second hanger members of the third support pedestal may be releasably connected to a pair of first or second sleeve members of a pair of opposing first support pedestals.
Each platform section is configured and dimensioned to support lengths of cable. One platform section is suspended from the stringer members of a pair of opposing support pedestals. The platform section has a proximal edge and an opposed distal edge and at least a portion of the proximal and distal edges of the platform section forms a downwardly extending flange. The flange may be operatively received within the channel of the stringer element.